The use of force and self-defence training has a long history that extends back to antiquity, when individuals of high standing required protection. Over the millennia, systems and styles of defence were devised to make best use of materials and innovations with the goal of providing the best possible preparation for those doing the guarding. The histories of all cultures from the past to the present show a great number of such innovations. All efforts were made to train and condition soldiers, police, and protectors to do their work with the greatest efficiency possible.
In today's high stress society fraught with every danger, our police, soldiers and protectors have become vulnerable; easy prey for those with untoward intentions. Our police must live by the highest standards of conduct, including all circumstances surrounding physical conflict in the field. The paradox is that while they are in the greatest danger the police are at the same time expected to exercise the greatest restraint. A dramatic increase in the use of deadly weapons coupled with a blatant disrespect for all authority has made a difficult job much harder.
When an attack occurs the policeman's body responds by injecting a large quantity of adrenalin precipitating a flight or fight response. When this occurs several things happen; a dramatic increase in strength, increase heart rate and blood pressure, narrowing focus on the point of danger and most notably a sharp reduction of higher brain function. In this high anxiety state the policeman unaccustomed to such duress will react with untrained instinct, over or under reacting. This may result in either the policeman or the assailant being hurt or killed.
It is desirable therefore to make use of “state specific training”, which means that the physiological and psychological state that humans will be in during a real attack must be reproduced during dynamic training exercises. If this state of acute stress is replicated during training, the individual's physiological and psychological state will be congruent with their state during a real attack. This means they will be able to draw on their training to assist in their survival.
The prior art training tools include rubber, wooden, or other non-threatening dull edged training knives. There are numerous distributors that sell these types of inexpensive training knives over the internet, in store, or via other distribution channels. There are a few competitors who claim their knife is the best knife for realistic knife training, but none of them induce the necessary fear to increase the stress level of the trainee to an adequate level that could be considered realistic.
Relating specifically to stun technology, there has been incredible growth in electro-shock weapons over the past 30 years. Stun technology came out in the 1970's and has grown into a multi-million dollar industry. Originally developed for the law enforcement market, many of these shock devices have made their way into the hands of civilians. These weapons include electro-shock riot shields, electro-shock stun belts (using a remote control), tasers (a device which fires darts connected to a 4 or 5 meter wire into a victim's body or clothes so that an electric shock using roughly 10 watts at 50,000 volts for two to three seconds is inflicted from a distance), shock rods, and stun guns which also shoot tear gas. All of these devices are used as offensive weapons and/or defensive weapons used against the threat of physical harm. None of these weapons are used to train individuals against an edge weapon attack due to there incapacitating nature.
Although shock devices such as Tasers, stun guns, gloves, extending poles as well as cattle prods are known in the prior art, none deliver a shock within a suitable voltage range for non-incapacitating training purposes or for simulating an edge weapon. All of the known prior art devices are generally identified as non-lethal but incapacitating to the subject. Incapacitating generally means requiring sufficient electrical charge in order to incapacitate the person or animal using electrical charges ranging from 50,000 to 300,000 volts.
Searching of the prior art has found that while there are many shocking devices in the area of cattle prods and stun weaponry for incapacitating, there were no shocking devices found to be used as mock weapons or training devices. While there does not appear to be any training devices incorporating shocking to induce a fear response into a trainee, there are many types of training tools, highlighting systems and methods involving non-harmful products. Without an ability to generate a fear response in a trainee though, prior art training tools are largely ineffective.